St. Paul Brewing owners accuse city of retaliation as council readies zoning vote

Toward the end of May developer Rob Clapp known for popular destination projects such as St Paul Brewing Can Can Wonderland and the newly reopened Dark Horse Bar Eatery logged a win of sorts before the St Paul Planning Commission which voted to recommend against the city s efforts to rezone part of the historic Hamm s Brewery campus for new housing Clapp has long maintained that converting the brewery s east end parking lot into more than units of affordable housing will eliminate needed parking for his multiple businesses Within two hours of the vote according to Clapp a senior city planner arrived outside St Paul Brewing to take pictures that would later be used by the city s Department of Safety and Inspections to threaten his liquor license The next day city inspectors put a stop-work order on a landscaping project at the brewery that was intended to make room for new trees outside the former Wells Distillery The stop-work order was resolved within hours through an explanatory telephone call The day after that for reasons that remain unclear an inspector from the Minnesota Occupational Safety and Robustness Administration stopped by the distillery which is not in the present open to the constituents Clapp announced he doesn t believe in coincidences It s just harassment explained Clapp in an interview Thursday Within two hours of the Planning Commission decision not to rezone she was there filing this complaint which just seems retaliatory This is coming from PED which is Planning and Economic Expansion It shouldn t be Planning and Reverse Economic Growth The mayor s office has denied any sort of retaliation A spokesperson declared St Paul Brewing posted a picture to social media on May showing a completed patio expansion onto city-owned land without a use license from the city s Housing and Redevelopment Authority The patio included a portable outdoor stage sound equipment and lighting constructed without permits as well as liquor utility Accusations of retaliation are false Accusations of retaliation are false revealed Jennifer Lor the mayor s press secretary in a written announcement Thursday There is no connection between the rezoning hearing on May and actions taken regarding St Paul Brewing s unauthorized operations She added The city followed standard procedure to confirm the unauthorized operations through interdepartmental collaboration St Paul Brewing acknowledged these issues and cooperated with the city to resolve it within a scant days Clapp reported Friday the simple set-up included string lights that have been on site for several years as well as a shipping container with no mechanicals which has been used for the past year as a mobile stage and a portable generator City functionaries from St Paul Parks and Rec the Department of Safety and Inspections Planning and Economic Expansion and the city attorney s office had walked through the property on multiple occasions since the stage was installed in June he reported and they had never previously raised concern The war of words between a housing developer the owner of St Paul Brewing and top city bureaucrats over proposed real estate maturation at the sprawling -era brewery on St Paul s East Side has entered a new phase with the restaurant owner accusing city planners of bad faith on the eve of what could be a decisive city council vote Developer JB Vang and the St Paul mayor s office have long hoped to install dozens of new affordable housing units within the old Hamm s Brewery campus on Minnehaha Avenue Those plans hit a major obstacle on May when the city s Planning Commission determined the proposal involved spot zoning or a zoning reclassification limited to a relatively small parcel of land to accommodate a particular project which is illegal in Minnesota Despite the Planning Commission recommendation the St Paul City Council is expected to take up the rezoning question on Wednesday Still the negative decision represented at least a temporary win for Clapp the principal behind Eclective Creative Collective a combination of eight restaurants real estate holding companies and creative businesses who has argued that housing construction will remove needed parking for a series of businesses he operates on the Hamm s campus including St Paul Brewing the former Wells Distillery the Wonder Studio fabrication shop and a planned lounge or event center At a m May within about two hours of the Planning Commission vote a senior staff member with St Paul Planning and Economic Enhancement or PED was spotted on defense video taking photos through a defense fence at the back entrance of St Paul Brewing s outdoor patio just as the restaurant was opening according to Clapp and his Eclective Creative Collective club A hand-delivered correction notice Clapp maintains he recognized the planner and reached out by email to ask what she was looking for and if he could assist Nicolle Newtown the city s PED director emailed him back to say city staff would be on site from time to time Part of the brewery campus remains owned by the city s Housing and Redevelopment Authority We don t need anything from you at this time she wrote Thanks much Instead on June the restaurant received a hand-delivered correction notice from the city s Department of Safety and Inspections or DSI demanding they correct an apparent violation of their liquor license or lose their license entirely A section of the back patio near the back exit dock sits on city land and had offered outdoor seating under a shared-use agreement between the restaurant and the city s HRA for four years according to Clapp The agreement had apparently lapsed We ve done this for years where we ve had a license agreement with the HRA and no issues Clapp noted We were surprised to find this correction notice coming from DSI when I m reaching out twice to the senior city planner to see if she necessities anything Any time they ve made that request we ve turned it around in hours and that s the end of it This had a major impact on of our patio for a week during a summer month Sean Ryan a former project manager with Can Can Wonderland and administration relations manager with Clapp s collective stated they attempted to determine who filed the complaint over the lapsed license near the back dock but they were informed by DSI that complainant information is protected under input privacy laws We did push back saying that if a city employee did file the complaint in the class of their constituents work it should be available Ryan declared No response Ryan announced the association had hoped after the May Planning Commission vote that city planners would sit down with them and attempt to find common ground Instead the spot zoning question will go before the city council on Wednesday JB Vang s maturation plan shrinks JB Vang was awarded tentative developer status by the St Paul HRA in based on a proposal that included at the time a total of affordable housing units and a two-level indoor marketplace Under that plan an existing brewhouse building would be remodeled to host the marketplace and about mostly one- and two-bedroom rentals as well as certain ownership live work studios Elsewhere on the campus the proposal also called for family-sized owner-occupied rowhomes next to rental apartments in a new building which would fill in a surface parking lot on the site s northeast corner JB Vang has now put any effort to establish the rowhomes on pause and reduced the number of proposed units in the new building from to to allow for a -stall parking lot The company also been unable to find a partner to help develop the marketplace The rowhouses were removed from the project based on regulatory issues that prevented rental and ownership units being under the same roof stated Stephanie Harr a project evolution consultant for JB Vang in an email Friday The marketplace component of the project has not executed any contracts with partners yet we are continuing to talk with foreseen partners and determining what the partnership arrangement would look like Clapp has announced with JB Vang s tentative developer status expiring this year the city should work with him to reconfigure the project entirely Over Clapp s objections the city has nominated much of the brewery campus for a local historic designation borrowing the boundaries from a previous nomination to the National Register of Historic Places which was reviewed by the State Historic Preservation Review Board in January The city council likely will consider the local nomination in August with a vote tentatively scheduled for Aug Related Articles Lowry Apartments may become senior housing apartments or something else Sold Downtown St Paul s troubled Lowry Apartments Chicago firm makes th St Paul acquisition with Degree of Honor apartments A look inside downtown St Paul s new Landmark Tower Apartments and how much they rent for Luther Seminary plans to vacate its St Paul campus